Mae Questel Biography

Movie lovers might remember American singer and actor Mae Questel
(1908–1998) best as the dotty old woman who wrapped the family
cat as a gift in
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
, or as Woody Allen's omnipresent nagging mother in
"Oedipus Wrecks" included in the 1989 film
New York Stories
. However, she achieved lasting pop culture fame as the voice of
animated cartoon characters Betty Boop and Olive Oyl.

Questel, a singer, comedienne, and character actress, paved the way for
such modern day voice actors as June Foray, Tress MacNeill, and Nancy
Cartwright. Never exactly a household name, the diminutive actress
consistently made a solid living in vaudeville, on network radio,
television, playing memorable character parts in films, and on the
Broadway stage. Moreover, she provided voices for literally hundreds of
cartoons that are still seen and heard around the world today.

Born Mae Kwestel September 13, 1908, in New York City, she was raised in
the Bronx by parents Simon Kwestel and Frieda Glauberman, where she honed
her abilities as a mimic and dialect comic at local charitable functions.
Although her parents demanded she quit her dramatic studies and latch on
to a steady career in teaching, the youngster's love of performance
determined her fate. By the time she graduated high school at age 17,
young Mae was already working in vaudeville, doing her spot-on singing
impersonations of such contemporary stars as Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor,
Marlene Dietrich, Ruth Etting, and Maurice Chevalier. When her
impersonation of singer Helen Kane—the Madonna of the flapper
era—helped her win a talent contest at the RKO Fordham Theater in
1925, her career kicked into a higher gear. Now billed as "Mae
Questel, Personality Singer of Personality Songs," she began
performing regularly on radio and took steady work with the RKO vaudeville
circuit, culminating in a much-prized gig at the prestigious Palace
Theater in New York in 1930.

The Voice of Betty Boop

Cartoon filmmaker Max Fleischer saw Questel's impersonation of
Helen Kane in 1931 and asked her to use it for his cartoon creation Betty
Boop. The character, which began life as a cartoon dog with Kane-like
affectations, had already been voiced by various actresses, most notably
Margie Hines, Little Ann Little, Bonnie Poe, and Kate Wright. Each of
these actresses utilized Kane's flirty, babydoll voice and
catchphrase "boop-oop-a-doop," but it was Questel who made
Betty Boop a media phenomenon. A better singer and improviser than her
predecessors, she also modeled for Fleischer's animators who based
many of the character's emerging physical quirks on
Questel's own mannerisms. Indeed, Questel told Leslie Cabarga,
author of
The Fleischer Story
, "I actually lived the part of Betty Boop; walked, talked,
everything! It took me a long time to sort of lower my voice and get away
from the character."

During that era, cartoons were part of a movie package shown to as many
adults as children. As a result, the early on-screen antics of Betty Boop
were considered somewhat risque for the times. Pre-1935 cartoon gags show
the character losing her dress, revealing a nude silhouette, and dancing
suggestively to hot Cab Calloway jazz. (Later the character's
skirts were lengthened, and her dialogue was written with less suggestive
overtones.) The saucy cartoons,

many of which featured a song from Questel, made a major splash with
moviegoers. Soon, the Betty Boop character was part of a hot commercial
trend that encompassed everything from candy, toys, clothes, and beauty
products to network radio programs and newspaper comic strips. Further,
Questel herself recorded a version of "The Good Ship
Lollipop" in her Betty Boop voice that sold over two million
records for Decca in 1934. She also appeared as the character in a live
action short subject film titled
Hollywood on Parade No. A-8
. The Fleischer Brothers and their parent company, Paramount Pictures,
were presumably raking in the profits. However, the person upon whom the
character was based, Helen Kane, did not benefit.

Kane's career reached its height during the late 1920s when her
cutie-pie renditions of "Button Up Your Overcoat" and
"I Wanna Be Loved By You," replete with her signature
"boop-oop-a-doop" interjections, made her the toast of
Broadway. She had made a few singing short subject films at the beginning
of the sound era, but her career was clearly in decline by 1934 when she
filed a $250,000 suit against the Fleischer Brothers. Kane claimed that
the cartoons had subverted her popularity by appropriating her singing
style and especially her catchphrase "boop-oop-a-doop."

Fleischer testified that Betty Boop came from his own imagination and had
five women who had voiced the character, including Questel, take the stand
and testify they did not base their performances on Kane. Nevertheless, it
is generally held that Questel's characterization was based on
Kane. To quote Andrew J. Lederer of
Animation World Magazine
, "However, Mae had to have known that Betty was based on Helen.
Her entire career was based on her original impersonation of Helen Kane.
On the night of the fateful contest, Kane had autographed a photo to Mae
that said, 'To another Helen Kane.'"

Questel, who voiced Betty Boop until the cartoon ceased production in
1939, was always grateful to the Fleischer Brothers and never publicly
admitted that she copied Kane for the cartoons. Ironically, when she sang
the 1920s knockoff "Chameleon Days" in Woody Allen's
1983 faux documentary
Zelig
, a close-up of the mock 78 rpm record reveals that the song is falsely
credited to Helen Kane.

The Voice of Olive Oyl, Caspar, Little Lulu, and Little Audrey

When she wasn't providing Betty Boop's voice, Questel was
also supplying the voice for Olive Oyl in Fleischer's
Popeye the Sailor
cartoons. Olive Oyl's voice was based on the fluttering utterances
of 1930s and 1940s film comedienne Zasu Pitts, but Questel added her own
little touches. "The character of Olive Oyl … I saw the
storyboard and Max Fleischer showed it to me," she recalled in a
1986 interview at the Sons of the Desert Convention. "I said,
'There is an actress that sort of reminds me of a scrawny old lady
that's always using her hands.'… And I thought,
'That should sound like Olive Oyl' and it was a crackly kind
of voice,
Yoo-hoo, here I ah-am! It's Olive Oyl!
' And, of course Max seemed to like the voice and he used
it."

Popeye was originally voiced by William Costello, better known as Red
Pepper Sam, who also worked with Questel on her
Betty Boop's Frolics
radio show as Gus Gorilla. He was later replaced by former animator Jack
Mercer, who would supply the spinach-eating sailor's voice for the
next three decades. Mercer also voiced Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, and
Popeye's four nephews. In addition to Olive Oyl, Questel voiced the
infant Swee'pea, the Sea Hag, and when Mercer was in the service
during World War II, she even stepped in and did Popeye's voice.

Many Popeye aficionados prefer the early to mid-1930s run because of its
mix of well-planned slapstick and verbal spontaneity. Working with
director and gagman Dave Fleischer, Questel and Mercer were allowed to
improvise reactions and snappy patter whether the animated characters were
speaking or not. Often this somewhat surreal technique provided the
illusion that Popeye and Olive were humorously complaining under their
breath.

The Fleischers moved their operation to Florida in 1939, and Questel chose
not to go with them, although she did provide voices for their ill-fated
feature-length cartoon
Mr. Bug Goes to Town
in 1941. When Paramount foreclosed on Fleischer's loan for the
Miami studio in 1942, the Popeye cartoons began being produced by their
own company Famous Studios, and Questel returned to voice acting full
time. Working with Seymour Kneitel, who had directed many of the Fleischer
cartoons, Questel began voicing the role of popular
Saturday Evening Post
cartoon Little Lulu in 1944. The quintessential curious little girl, Lulu
was an immediate hit with moviegoers, but Paramount, hoping to avoid
paying royalties to the character's creator Marge, ceased
production on the cartoon in 1948. The following year, they had Questel
providing the voice for their Little Lulu knockoff Little Audrey, another
bright, curious little girl who often got into comedic trouble. Equally
successful was her uncredited role as the voice of Caspar, the Friendly
Ghost, which also enjoyed a successful run in movie theaters.

The Consummate Character Actress

Although married (first to Leo Balkin, later Jack Shelby), the mother of
two, and grandmother of three, Questel worked constantly and found no
reason to ever leave New York. Besides appearing in a series of short
subject pictures during the 1930s and 1940s, she played character roles
and provided animal sound effects for various network radio programs,
including
The Green Hornet
and
Perry Mason
. When not starring in radio incarnations of
Betty Boop
(1933) and
Popeye
(1935–1938), she was a regular performer on Jack Pearl's
(also known as Baron Munchausen) many radio shows, and the comic book
spin-off
Land of the Lost
. Frequently recording as Olive Oyl, Betty Boop, and Little Audrey for
Decca until 1940, she achieved a true novelty classic with the effusive
skittering contained on "The Broken Record," which still
receives airplay on YouTube and Dr. Demento's wacky radio show.

Staying in New York also allowed Questel to tackle roles in Broadway plays
such as
Dr. Social
(1948) and Carl Reiner's autobiographical
Enter Laughing
(1963). During the early years of network television, she was a regular
on the popular game show
Stop Me If You've Heard This One
(1948–1949). The consummate character actress also appeared in the
daytime drama
Somerset
(1970) and in dozens of television commercials, in which she is best
remembered as Aunt Bluebell for the Scott Paper Company.

A major figure in early television animation, Questel provided the voice
of the starring character on the first interactive television show for
children
Winky Dink and You
(1953, 1957), which sold kits that allowed viewers to draw on washable
clear plastic draped over the screen whenever host Jack Barry prompted
them. Questel also wrote and supplied voices for ABC's Saturday
morning cartoon show
Matty's Funday Funnies
(1959–1961), where she reprised her roles as Little Audrey and
Caspar, the Friendly Ghost.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, when Popeye cartoons became a staple of
local children's television programming, Questel found herself in
demand as Olive Oyl once again. Besides re-teaming with Jack Mercer for
200 Popeye cartoons for syndicated television (1959–1963), she did
voice-overs for the CBS Saturday morning series
The All New Popeye Hour
(1978–1983). When the nostalgia boom hit, she even voiced Betty
Boop again for a series of commercials during the 1970s, an ill-fated TV
pilot, and the 1988 film
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
, wherein she demonstrated her trademark flirty zest.

After decades of turning down offers, Questel finally deigned to work in
Hollywood in 1961. Typed as the wacky aunt, mother, or even grandmother,
the actress provided much needed spunk to Jerry Lewis' film
It's Only Money
(1961), Barbara Streisand's debut
Funny Girl
(1968), and the Elliot Gould vehicle
Move
(1970). Her final two film roles proved particularly memorable. She
demonstrated comedic perfection as the Jewish mother who disappears in a
magician's act and then celestially reappears to relentlessly nag
her son in Woody Allen's segment of
New York Stories
titled "Oedipus Wrecks." She also garnered big laughs as
the forgetful Aunt Bethany, who, when asked to say grace recited the
Pledge of Allegiance, in the John Hughes-directed
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
(1989).

However, Questel's final screen appearance proved close to the
truth. Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, she soon retired from
the screen. She died on January 4, 1998.

Books

Cabarga, Leslie,
The Fleischer Story
, rev. ed., DaCapo Press, 1988.

Fleischer, Richard,
Out of the Inkwell: Max Fleischer and the Animation Revolution
, University Press of Kentucky, 2005.

McNeil, Alex,
Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to
the Present
, 4th ed., Penguin Books, 1996.